We call him Bobby......

this young man so many are pinning their hopes upon. He's not much older than my daughter -- they went to the same highschool. During the last gubernatorial election (the one before Katrina. the one that maybe, just maybe could have produced a different outcome for this state in general [and Katrina victims specifically] if the election had had a different outcome) he was called a wunderkind. For the first time in I can't remember when, I didn't have to hold my nose as I voted for Bobby. After his loss (especially after realizing who he lost to) I was ready to pack my bags and head to sweet home Alabama.

Well, we have another chance. This Saturday. But this time around I'm not so confident. I don't know if there's anyone who can pull this place forward. It's like my seatmate on the flight from hell home from NYC said about Katrina, "If something didn't change things. I wonder if someone can."

I wonder, too. It's being said that people in this state are being paralyzed by indecisiveness -- and the closer to the storm's effects you are, the more indecisive you are. How true. In one ear we're hearing -- we have the chance of a lifetime to change things. to start over. to make things better.

Then....in the other ear we're hearing -- you know you can't trust anyone. be careful. remember the past. do the right thing.

Believe it or not, there are many down this way who care and want to do the right thing. Many of us see hope in a young man born in Baton Rouge to parents who had recently arrived from India to attend graduate school. A young man who was daily told how blessed he was to be living in America. A young man who decided he wanted to be called Bobby after watching the The Brady Bunch. A young man who, as a teenager, converted from Hinduism to Catholicism.

It's time to decide and all I can say is, "Go Bobby Go!"
....I think. ....I hope.